I've been burned too many times by sneaky deli tulips. They look as though they're on the cusp of unfurling--and I think to myself: "What great timing, to buy them so young!" And yet, they stay small buds for two days until I bump into them, at which point they dissolve like a mandala sand painting set in front of a fan. Then I have to circle back to the inevitable: What kind of fool confuses a deli that sells Duraflame logs and Arizona Iced Tea for a farm-fresh importer of tulips?

As a result, recently I decided to tiptoe into the big, tacky world of ersatz flowers. And now that I have, part of me wonders, why did I wait so long? I bought pink and white cherry blossoms online and stripped them from the bendy plastic branch they came on. Then I set about hot gluing the little nibs and leaves onto a large fallen branch I nicked from a yard. I think the natural branch is the key to this project's success--i.e. the branch has to hold its own. Three weeks and counting, what I love about it is what people have always loved about fake flowers: Every time I come home, it looks gorgeous--like sculpture I can afford.

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This guest post is by a lady who makes me swoon. Sonya Nimri is the wonderfully creative author of Just for the Frill of It and hot off the presses Beadalicious. If you are looking for books with projects that will add pretty, one of a kind details to your life, search no more. Here, Sonya shares her project for the prettiest gardening boots I've ever seen. Getting dirty never looked so good.



Daisies have such pretty connotations. The Irish say that dreaming of daisies at the beginning of spring brings months of good luck. They also say that to dream of your love, place your shoes (or rubber boots in this case) outside the door to your room and put daisy roots under your pillow. This sounds a bit dirty, but I tried it and it actually worked!

Daisy Gardening Boots

What You'll Need

• 1 pair rubber boots (available at most hardware stores)
• 16 fabric daisy appliqués
• Approx 60 3mm yellow seed beads
• Green ric-rac ribbon, 1 yard long
• 1 can pink spray paint (I used Krylon H20 paint in Rhine River Red)
• Mustard yellow craft paint
• E6000 glue
• Small brush or sponge
• Fabric glue
• Toothpick
• Scissors

Directions

1. Spray-paint the boots following directions on the can. Be sure to do this outside or in a well-ventilated area.

2. Use fabric glue to attach 8 daisy appliqués onto each boot, making sure to cover the back of the daisies entirely with glue.

3. Place a generous dab of glue in the center of each daisy and pour seed beads onto the glue, pressing them down so they sink into the glue.

4. Paint the toe and the top trim of each boot with yellow paint.

5. Glue the green ribbon around the top edge of each boot and along the toe line, as shown.

Delish Delight: Daisy-chain Wreath

To make a daisy chain, pick a bunch of daisies and use your fingernail to pierce a hole in each stem, toward the base of the flower. Thread one stem through the hole in another until stopped by the head of the flower. Repeat until you have a long chain for a simple bracelets, wreaths, and necklaces. Put on and dance in the fields like Isadora Duncan.

If you're interested in sharing a project, recipe, or that amazing DIY thing that you do on Pink of Perfection, just email me: sarah@pinkofperfection.com.

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I have a tendency to drag my feet when the seasons shift (this one here? not so good with change), but what better way to get psyched for the season than seeing all the lovely, creative things people are making in honor of the blossoms that will be here any second now...

This portable checkerboard pillow begs to be taken to the park on a sunny day for a lazy game under a tree.

Need a new skirt to spruce up your spring wardrobe? Support small businesses and like-minded ladies and gents at the Spring Fling Bust Craftacular.

I bet there's a correlation between rising temperatures and increased incidences of graffiti, but what I'd like to see is more knit-iffiti. (via Craft)

If you're looking for some inspiration to help you get those creative wheels turning, Creative Kismet's got a stockpile of pretty, springy floral fabrics found while thrifting and more charming buttons than you can shake a stick at.

Do you know how to make a retro-style pet bed? And do you know about the glorious ThreadBanger yet?

I can barely talk about how cute these plushy tea and coffee cups are.

If you're in the New York area, let's talk about how cool it is that you can take a super simple sundress class taught by textile star Heather Ross herself at Purl Patchwork.

Make your spring meals a ritual worth celebrating with pretty napkins with the cleverest use of ribbon, perhaps ever.

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All yesterday, and all last night, it snowed in New York. The soft, drifting kind of snow that falls steadily until the sidewalks, windshields, and window ledges are covered, while pedestrians plod home with a bottle tucked under an arm to eat something warm, talk to someone they love, and turn in early with a book.

At least, it was that kind of snow until the snow turned to rain. The kind of rain that turns the sidewalk into a treacherous slick of ice, hits your face in cold pellets and makes you shake your fist at the sky wondering why you bothered to get out of bed at all.

Given the slushy circumstances, this bouquet seems downright absurd, what with its defiant cheeriness and candy colors. But, after seeing this clever use of candy decorations, my desire to put one of these bouquets together for Valentine's Day overcame me.

And truly, isn't that what Valentine's is about? The day of saint Valentine, as far as I'm concerned, is in cahoots with Christmas, Winter Solstice, Chinese New Year, Hanukkah, and all the other winter festivals of light that promote warmth, community, and hope in the darkest season. Say it's Hallmark, if you like. I say Valentine's Day is just another example of the human instinct to surround ourselves with flowers, bite into something sweet, and get close to another human body in the bitterest month of all.



Valentine's Bouquet

1 short, squat glass (like for a few glugs of scotch)
1 short, narrow glass (like for juice -- you can usually find these in junk shops)
conversation hearts
flowers
scissors

Arrange the flowers in your short, narrow glass filled about halfway with water. Place the flower-filled glass inside the wider glass. Scatter the conversation hearts in the inner space between the two glasses. Marvel how times have changed with hearts emblazoned "IM Me." Place at your bedside or on the desk of someone you fancy, and wait for the sun to come out.

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Just as you will start noticing playing cards all over a city once you have your eye out for them, frames pile up on curbs more often than you'd expect. And because new frames can tend to be on the pricey side, I simply cannot pass up a free one. In fact, someone close to me informed me they think I have a "frame problem" since I have stacks collecting dust on the tops of my bookshelves. But my feeling is that you can put anything in a frame -- leftover holiday wrapping, scraps of wallpaper, fabric -- and you have instant art. Suddenly, when it comes to wall hangings, you have credibility. You tell the world, "I do not use double-sided tape to hang my pictures anymore!" and you mean it.



So when I found these old sewing patterns for a dollar each in a three-story junk shop in rural Pennsylvania, I knew they had to be snatched up. And when my favorite $1 store in the neighborhood commenced their going out of business sale, I knew I could get four matching frames for a bargain basement price. The planets were aligning! But why, my shopping partner wanted to know, could I not use one of the many frames corralling dust bunnies above my collection of cookbooks? Because I might need those for something else, duh.



I bought these four ugly yellow and green frames for $6, spray painted them a glossy black, and popped in these terrifically glamorous, wasp-waisted ladies. Don't they inspire you to cinch your waist with a belt, toss out some bon mots and wink at an old man? Me too.

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I consider my work on the Pink of Perfection to be about a deep desire to create beautiful days. The reason why I embroider and bake and love having people over is to add sparkle to a 24 hour period that more often than not includes work, commuting, and other daily drudgeries. But the one piece of the puzzle that I haven't quite gotten my arms around yet is supper.

If I have just stumbled through the door, sometimes in sweaty workout clothes and sometimes just with the musty shroud of the day on my back, I am tired. And I'd put my life savings on the fact that you are tired, too. In those moments, even if I know in my heart of hearts that pouring myself a glass of wine and throwing something quick together will give my day a sense of meaning, no matter how small, sometimes all I want is for someone else to do the work.

If I were to be totally honest (and you seem to like it when I am), I would have to tell you that at least once a week, and often frightfully more frequently than that, we order take-out. Even worse, when the food arrives, we clear off the coffee table and unpack the hot and sour soup right there in front of the television. And yes, when I was sick yesterday, I did eat that Cup of Noodles.

Are you still reading?

One of the things on my list is to do this less often. If I were honest with myself I would admit it's an indulgence that feels good only until I am sitting in front of a stack of gnawed rib bones and the coffee table is scattered with empty soy sauce packets and stray grains of rice. "God isn't finished with me yet," as my mom says, and I'm working on making sitting at the table a more regular part of our weeknight meals and not something that just sounds good in my head.

At the same time, I can't deny reality. I will probably always be someone who wants the feeling of being cared for every now and then. That means me changing into my pajamas while someone else cooks my dinner and brings it to my door. It also means watching Dr. Katz and not having to make conversation while I slurp down my noodles. I hope to do it less, sure, but to not do it at all? I tend to believe that would be cutting out a certain kind of sparkle a particular kind of day needs.

These reversible placemats will make eating at the coffee table a cheerier -- and neater -- practice. They will catch those errant grains of rice and splatters of sauce and a quick shake-down over the trash can will leave them clean again. Bet you didn't think post-take-out clean up could be even easier, did ya?



Reversible Oilcloth Placemats
makes 4 placemats

1/2 yard of oilcloth (1/4 yard of each print)
pen
pinking shears
sewing glue or sewing machine
ruler or a box lid or book to trace
iron

When sewing fast and loose like this without a pattern, I think the best thing is to find an object you can trace directly on the fabric. I used a box lid that was 15" x 12". Find an object around that house that works for you, or just measure out the shape with a ruler.

Iron wrong side of the oilcloth on a low setting if it has deep crinkles from being folded. Trace or measure out shapes on the wrong sides of both pieces of oilcloth. Cut out with pinking shears. Put one cut-out shape on a flat surface, wrong side up. Place the other pattern of oilcloth on top, wrong sides together and printed side facing you. Line up edges to your satisfaction. Pin if sewing and stitch along all four edges, or carefully run sewing glue along the edges between the two pieces of oilcloth, press and smooth. Let dry. Eat!

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Not having a set of sterling silverware myself, I often pick up silver-plated bowls and whatnots at junk shops--it's so not the same thing, but I'm like a raccoon: I cling to what's shiny.

Polishing these items is sort of meditative, I guess, but it's messy and leaves a black stain on my fingernails that I find even more embarrassing than wearing clothes with holes in the armpits.



So I was so intrigued when I read about a silver polishing technique in a Danny Seo book (he's so sweet and earnest!) that requires neither silver polish nor elbow grease. I tried it on this fussy bowl I bought for $1 at a Salvation Army in Allentown, PA.

At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, let me say that it worked like magic.



You'll need:

--Some kind of container (bowl, roasting pan, etc) lined with aluminum foil
--Boiling hot water with added
--salt (a few tablespoons should do it)



Just place your tarnished items in the aluminum-foil lined container and pour the saltwater over them until they're fully submerged. If you look closely, you can actually see the tarnish disappear. Leave it for a few minutes (you may also have to repeat the cycle). Then buff the silver items to dry them off and make them extra shiny. As if I needed another reason to love salt.

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One of my major idols, Eleanor Josaphine Medill "Cissy" Patterson--the country's first major female newspaper publisher and a sybarite of the first order--used to entertain at her Dupont Circle home in elaborate silk pajamas. I thought of her recently after moving from a 400 square foot apartment--where we regularly entertained in what was essentially our bedroom (whether I wore real clothes or not) to a house with many rooms--one of which I intend to use as an office.

To be honest, a home office is a novel concept for me. I've always thought of bed as the ultimate workspace: good for reading, aesthetically pleasing, the perfect place to drink coffee and look out the window. In college I even had the desk removed from my dorm room to make way for a nice, feather-cushioned loveseat. But someone has given me a hand-me-down computer (my first) and I finally reached my breaking point at the public library when a) I started to recognize everyone there (like the man who can't remove the paint from his eyebrows and is--from what I can tell--in the midst of refinancing his $800,000 home) and b) the woman coughing and typing next to me was obviously going to give me TB.

Not wanting to get too attached to the home office concept--I may, after all, end up back in a 400 sq ft place or miss the DSM-IV charms of the library--I didn't want to invest too heavily in the set-up. So I repurposed this $9 child's table and the $6 Braniff-era Steelcase office chair as my desk. This time, I tried not to use spray paint--at least on the fabric--but it was so slow-going (especially after the Law & Order marathon ran its course) that I ignored the advice of the man at the hardware store (he thought I needed "flexible" paint) and went at it with water-based latex spray paint. (P.S. For those of you who are curious about the metallic and glitter varieties, Michaels is running a $1.99 sale right now on Krylon paints.)

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This free skull font would make any invitations simultaneously design-y and frightening!

These little pumpkins, ghosts, and candy corns are way too cute to be scary. Buy the pattern and lots more softies here.

Did you buy a cheap can of coffee in a pinch? Turn it into a pumpkin to decorate a window or to haul your tricks and treats.

Not Martha makes her jack o' lanterns fretful.

Sewing Stars gives us a jaunty little skeleton paper doll template we can download.

The endlessly clever folks at Stencil 1 bring us ghoulishly scary stencils.

Mia at One Hour Craft gives us a quick tutorial for creepy, crawly spiders.

The best costumes ever.

The best spooky cooking video ever.

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This is a story about diamonds in the rough (and this would be diamonds of the peach-colored splatter-painted, needlepoint-embellished variety).

I like old stuff. I like finding weights in the hems of vintage dresses and thoughtful little details like toggle-snaps that marshal bra straps. I like craftsmanship and pintucking and punch bowls. A friend of mine asked recently, "Do any of your clothes come from an actual store?"

It must be said, however, that I treasure a bargain. And my heart literally soars at the thought of a high-quality rummage sale. What's more: there's nothing more gratifying than having a dignified 85-year-old woman look over the vases/silverware/monogrammed napkins you've picked out and nod with approval.

But what about the rummage sale rejects (is that redundant?). After the Golden Girls bamboo furniture gets carted away, the Eames wannabes go home with Rachel Zoe wannabes and what's left is truly hideous?

The pictures don't show how truly ugly this Cracker Barrel-esque tray-and-waitstand combo appeared in person. It was practically the last item standing. But I liked the shape and imagined it as useful.

So I snapped it up, attacked it with metallic silver spray paint, and laid a piece of metallic Indian fabric under the glass. I would have made the tableaux look more interesting, but I have much to learn on the styling front.

The receipt:
$15 for the table
$4 spray paint

Debating with my husband over whether or not spray paint would leech toxins into the air long after it dried? Obviously the highlight of my weekend.



PS Today is Katy's birthday. Let's all head to the comments to tell her just how happy we are she was born! -Sarah

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I have a bit of a confession to make. Please put down any coffeecake you may be nibbling or tea you may be sipping and take a seat; I don't want anyone to choke, spray, or fall over with surprise and, alright, disgust. You ready?

I am a slob.

That's right, the mistress of Pink of Perfection with its pretty photographs and clean design (Sebastian's doing) is a downright mess. Somewhere in my personal development, certain lessons just weren't cemented: Hang up your clothes. Wash all the dishes before you got to bed. Put the dirty clothes in the hamper. Don't get me wrong: I want to be totally together. Who doesn't? I want to look polished and turned out and come home to an apartment that looks like it should be in a design magazine. Who wouldn't? But the truth of the matter is that I have to clear off surfaces before we can take tidy looking pictures without mail or half-drunk glasses of wine in the background, and I am someone who pretty much looks like she just tumbled out of bed all the time. I justify all this by calling myself earthy, rather than messy, our apartment lived-in, rather than a disaster, and my hair tousled, rather than just, well, unbrushed.

Much as I try to resist it, though, adulthood is nigh. I should probably be dressing more the part at work (who knew sundresses weren't "professional"?) and not losing important things like, oh, jury duty summons and passports. I want to have an organized home. Even my horoscope is telling me it's time.

So who's advice would you take for organizing? Maybe someone who is having to work at it, and actually following her own advice. Now that nesting season is upon us, it's time for me to get my nest into shape.

POP Tips for Purging and Organizing

• I firmly believe weekends are for fun, not filing. On the weeknights when you have an extra bit of energy, set the timer for 30 minutes to spend cleaning up. And when the buzzer goes, stop. It's actually kind of astounding how much you can get done in half an hour.
• If it's clothes and housewares you have an overabundance of, take them to a thrift shop that will give you a receipt for your goods -- it's tax-deductible! If you know you're just going to let the things sit in bags for weeks on end until you make it to the Salvation Army (paging Sarah McColl), drop them in a clothes deposit box. Keep your eyes peeled, as there is probably one in your neighborhood.
• Sometimes it's hard to part with sentimental items that don't fit or never wear, like a dress you still totally love or a necklace you're mom gave you. Two options: place this stuff in a bag under your bed. If you forget, it's probably time to say goodbye. Another idea is to hand it over on "extended loan" to a friend. It's not totally out of your life for good (you could always get it back if you want), but it's also not jammed in your closet or jewelry box. Be real about sentimentality. I am a total sap, and attach a lot of feelings and nostalgia to items. But when it's the feeling that I love and cherish and not the item, I have to remind myself to let the thing go and hang on to the feeling.
• Set a bar. I have clothes that make me feel like an absolute million bucks: they are comfy, chic, sexy, and I love them. And then there's the rest of my wardrobe. I'm gonna get rid of everything that doesn't make me feel absolutely unstoppable. Isn't life too short to feel short of fabulous, yes? And then if you have suddenly one great skirt instead of nine okay ones, wear it a couple of times a week. Isn't that what the French do?
• Have a place for things. Right now, a problem in my house is that there's no set place for the mail. Therefore, it winds up on the coffee table, on the floor, on the dining room table, and on both Sebastian's desk and mine. This is no way to keep things straight. With no room for an entry hall table, in fact, with no entry hall at all, I made this mail slot to hang on the wall from some old albums I wasn't listening to anymore. It functional and crafty and pretty cool, too.

Record Album Mail Organizer
What You'll Need

an old record
an oven
a cookie sheet
a bowl

Turn your oven up to 200 degrees F. Place an overturned bowl on a cookie sheet and center your record on the bowl. Place in oven for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, check to see how malleable the vinyl has become. If the record has totally flopped downwards towards the cookie sheet, take it out of the oven. If not, leave in for another minute and check again. When the vinyl can be shaped with ease, remove from oven and bend one 1/3 of the record toward the center to make a lopsided taco shape. Then lay the record flat on the cookie sheet and put a plate in between the folded sides of the record (like the taco filling, if you will), so the record will flop over a bit more. Put in oven for another minute or two. Remove, let cool, and hang on wall however you like. May I suggest making use of that handy hole for a nail?

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August, actually, is the cruelest month. And this period of time, as summer pivots into fall, is the most melancholy of all. School kids get to distract themselves from the slight change in the sunlight and the shorter days with freshly sharpened pencils, books with spines that have yet to be cracked, and notebooks just waiting to be filled. This year, I have no such distractions, and yet I am totally distracted. Twice now I've gotten the "M'am? M'am?" as I stood in line, oblivious to my turn at the register. "Oh, sorry, I'm in another world," I said both times, not planning the words, just hearing them spill out of my mouth.

Continue reading "School Supplies for Grown Girls: Fabric-Covered Notebook" »

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When I first found One Hour Craft, my heart leapt. What creative person in our modern rush wouldn't love a blog filled with simple craft tutorials that can be accomplished in 60 minutes or less? As an added bonus, One Hour Craft founder, Maria (Mia) Binns, writes with a sweet, encouraging voice nudging her readers to seek out pleasure and make the most of the time they have. This sort of thing being just my of cup of tea, I wrangled Mia into our first Pink of Perfection Profile. I hope you enjoy this new feature, and please pass on your picks for future interviewees in the worlds of crafts, cooking, design, and lifestyle.

What inspired you to start One Hour Craft?
I was inspired to write OHC to provide crafty and people who don't yet know they are crafty with an easy way to kick-start crafting. In this day when almost everyone is run off their feet, I think it is still possible to find an hour to craft, and if not an hour, then fifteen minutes a day for four days! I figured that there were people like me who just don't have the head space for long projects at the moment but love making a load of different things and love not only the process, but producing something. By the overwhelming response the site has seen I am convinced that there are plenty of ladies (and some men) who are in the same position as me.

Continue reading "Maria Binns from One Hour Craft" »

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Tanya may not think she is crafty, but she is most certainly stylish, and somewhere the twain shall meet. As the editrix with a superb and strangely flawless eye on The Hinter, she brings make-up, shoes, bags, products, outfits, and general stylistic inspiration to those of us with eyes that rest on bargain tables a little too often and too long (who here has not been vexed by a purchase prefaced by the dangerous question, "is this ugly-cool, or just ugly?" ). When Tanya interviewed Wendy Mullin of Built by Wendy I was pounding my keyboard in delighted exasperation at how awesome both of them are. She also uses maddeningly clever titles for her posts. Even the very particular ladies at Lucky think her effortless cool is just about the most appealing thing on earth and want whatever lipgloss she fancies "very fresh and modern." When a girl says she wants to wear high-waisted jeans with tucked-in oxford shirts and boat shoes, the world sits up and listens.



A few months ago, when it was more spring than summer, Tanya came over to show me how to make the accessory of the season. These might remind you of those ginormous flowers everyone gagged on in season 3 of Sex and the City but for which my heart has always fluttered. Tanya and her aforementioned keen eye, however, noted these buds sprouting up everywhere at Philip Lim, and in dark moody colors they carry right through till fall. And really, who wouldn't love a perma-corsage no matter the season? Made with pretty silk shantung or wire-trimmed ribbon these are certainly more attractive than your average prom date.

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Natalie Zee Drieu is one of those people with boundless creative and organizational energy who leaves the rest of us astounded and a wee bit envious. Not only does she run her own style blog, Coquette, but she also contributes to the Make blog and is the Associate Editor at Craft and the brains behind their blog (which is always chock-a-block with amazing ideas and inspirational projects). Did I mention Nat's also a total sweetie? She somehow had the time to interview me, and you can read the whole thing here. Thanks so much, Nat!

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Jenny Hart is, of course, the empress of embroidery. Julia is the master of fine cooking, M. F. K. is the goddess of well-crafted words. The ladies of Craft, Craftster, Supernaturale, and Get Crafty inspire and motivate creativity in countless astounding ways. In each of our efforts to live creatively, thoughtfully, and beautifully, there are teachers and experts all around us.

But I am not an expert. In all my writing and in each of our videos, I hope you'll remember that's exactly the point of this blog. If you, too, are not an expert, you're in good company. None of us needs a degree from Le Cordon Bleu to cook delicious food or enjoy stepping into our kitchens to prepare dinner (although, man, wouldn't cooking school be a blast?). Fine cooking, in my estimation, isn't about trickery, slight of hand, or even accomplishment, so much as providing for yourself and the people at your table and warding off more than one kind of hunger. Likewise, you needn't have your own Etsy shop to get your hands dirty making things. All of us can apply our personal brand of whimsy, imagination, and curiosity to the day to day in order to make the business of living more fun and more beautiful. What you'll find on this blog is what I believe to be the stuff of small, everyday magic. And any of us can do it.

Continue reading "Pink of Perfection Primer: Embroidered Handkerchief" »

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Sebastian was recently nominated for a very impressive award. This meant we spent an afternoon in a windowless New York discount store known for its amazing suits, prowling through the racks. Sebastian tirelessly slipped from one suit into another, endured a tape measure attack from a crochety old man and stomached style advice from a guy who did not look equipped to give it. Finally, with suit in hand, we found a dapper shirt with French cuffs and a sharp-looking tie and went home for a fashion show.

Continue reading "How to Make Your Own Cuff Links" »

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I have to work hard to remind myself that successful crafts, cooking, and lives do not depend on an ascending scale of bigger and better. Sometimes you cook a souffle that rises higher than Conan O'Brien's pompadour and sometimes you impress the entire neighborhood with the abundance of blooms on your windowsill or the most beautiful scarf in creation. Sometimes you take a trip to Paris that is a whirlwind of kir royales and romantic looks.

But then there is everyday life, which can want for inspiration and loveliness. Rather than feel the pressure to make a random Tuesday a carnival of amazement, I'm trying to remember how great the little touches are, and how satisfying making one tiny, pretty thing can be.

I've gotten back to basics here with the simplest materials: big squares of felt for $.44 and $.29 skeins of embroidery floss. I used a straightedge as my guide to cut the felt into smaller felt squares about 2x2 inches. Then I tried to figure out the blanket stitch. It was a cinch once I made up a way to stop and start a line of stitches. I worked on these while listening to great Brazilian music some friends brought back from their vacation in Rio. The coasters turned out sweet and lovely, a sure way to brighten any random Tuesday.

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Wouldn't holiday shopping go down a lot easier if you could skip chain stores entirely and browse handmade goods with a cocktail in your hand while bobbing your head to Le Tigre? As if you were looking for another reason to love Bust magazine, they brought us the Holiday Craftacular for the second year in a row.

Continue reading "Bust Holiday Craftacular" »

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Some people adore the long holiday build-up: Christmas music in the drugstore, red cups at Starbucks, the trees and wreaths lined up for sale on city sidewalks. It's safe to say I like the rising action more than the day itself. I love the anticipatory excitement, running elfish errands, making delectable treats, all the ribbons and wrappings, and thinking hard what gifts my loved ones would like most to receive.

Continue reading "Stenciled Holiday Cards" »

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Although they are a lot more dense, on the inside, mini pumpkins look a lot like regular-sized pumpkins. I found this out last Sunday when, tired of trying to wrestle my dear Duncan's attention away from the football game on TV, I decided to pry one open and find out what's going on in there.

Continue reading "Pumpkin Tea Lights" »

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Congratulations to Sarah for getting featured on Jane Magazine's website!



Sarah teaches Jane readers how to design a centerpiece with panache. And a lot of oranges.

Read the article here.

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There always seems to be an abundance of dressy scarves available at thrift shops--magnificent paisleys and polka-dots in poly, or if you are lucky, silk. At fifty cents a piece, I find them hard to pass up, but even more difficult to wear. Shirley Jones looked pretty hot with a scarf tied up in an ascot around her neck, but I look pretty ridiculous.

Continue reading "Head-Turning Headband" »

Posted by alison at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Women with tools are hot, and Beatrice has an entire workshop filled with 'em. This lady's got pliers, hammers, an ancient sewing machine, a pneumatic staple gun and a whole lot more in the back of her vintage furniture shop, Atlantis, in sleepy-cool Red Hook, Brooklyn. The store is filled to the brim with all sorts of mid-century treasures, and I left the proud owner of juice glasses painted with a buck-in-forest scene.

Continue reading "The Hot Seat: Reupholstering a Retro Dinette Chair" »

Posted by sarah at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

When I read Elsa Maxwell's informative romp How To Do It or The Lively Art of Entertaining earlier this summer, I doggeared approximately 47 pages for future reference. One of these pages contains advice on invitations for "the city woman who entertains often, at home, and with some degree of formality." Let us say that this city woman is me. According to Miss Maxwell, it would serve me well to have 4x5 inch cards engraved as fill-in-the-blank invitations: Miss Sarah McColl requests the pleasure of [so-and-so's] company [for cocktails, luncheon, etc] on [such-and-such a day and time.]

Continue reading "Not Just Cardstock and Letterpress" »

Posted by sarah at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

If you've ever taken an early supper during which the restaurant staff changes the lighting scheme over from all-business lunch to starry-eyed dinner, you know that your dining companions instantly become twice as attractive. You don't need a McMansion with dimmer switches in every room for an intimate effect; the basic element of fire will serve you quite well.

Continue reading "Fire With Fire: Simplest Lanterns" »

Posted by sarah at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)